Eloqua: Should CMOs should carry a quota?

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http://blogs.gartner.com/richard-fouts/2010/08/18/eloqua-should-cmos-should-carry-a-quota/

Eloqua is teasing us to attend their next webinar with the email subject
line, Why the CMO Should Carry a Quota. Great idea right? After all,
marketing executives are rapidly adopting the mantra, "We drive growth."

While it might sound new, there are plenty of CMOs that carry quotas,
and when I talk to them they admit it drives opportunistic behavior (you
know, the kind of organization that does anything for a buck?). And it
can drive growth, in the short term, but at the expense of investments
that drive long term growth – and stability.

What CMOs can learn from CIOs.

This question reminds me of the piles of research that Gartner and
others have done on the New CIO Leader, the one that goes beyond just
making the trains run on time and takes a seat at the strategic table.
The CIOs that focused on the trains were not invited to the strategic
table (why should they be?) and were eventually told, "Thanks for your
contribution. You've made it easy to outsource IT. Thanks, again. Your
gold watch is waiting at the door. "

The CMO that is driven only by revenue falls into a similar trap. They
end up generating leads and supporting sales, which is obviously a good
thing to do. But the organization realizes all they really need is a
good Sales VP and an adequate marcomm manager. In fact, if you read the
Eloqua webinar description, it essentially turns the CMO into a pipeline
manager. Don't we already have one of those?

In Eloqua's defense, I'm sure they aren't this single minded, so I'll
tune into their webinar and see for myself.